


With A Little Help From My Friends

by frogy



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:44:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogy/pseuds/frogy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Carlos?" someone calls from behind him.</p><p>Kendall had gotten Katie when the band broke up. There are papers to that effect that Carlos keeps in his spare room, which is not an office no matter what Logan says, because Carlos is not the type of person that has a home office. Everything about the end sucked, so it's not something Carlos dwells on.</p><p>So when he turns around, Carlos doesn't recognize the girl at the other end of the hallway who stopped him. </p><p>---</p><p>Ten years after Big Time Rush break up, Carlos runs into Katie in LA. James and Camille are are expecting their second child. Logan is doing his med-school residency and wishes Carlos and James would stop trying to set him up with dudes they know, he doesn't want a dumb Hollywood boyfriend (seriously, worst. friends. ever. except, you know, not at all). Kendall didn't take the end of BTR well. He stormed off and has been avoiding them since. But that gets increasingly hard to do when every gossip rag is all over how Carlos is dating his little sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With A Little Help From My Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Queenitsy for the beta. Any and all remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> This fic is for [Big Time Bang](http://bigtimebang.livejournal.com) on LJ. 
> 
> Thank you Goten0040 for the art (which I will link to here as soon as I post it).
> 
> The title is obviously taken from The Beatles, because titles are hard, yo.
> 
> I played loose and fast with show and real life canon. There is a bigger age difference between Katie and Carlos than in canon, Katie is 20ish and Carlos is 32ish. And everything I know about being a singer/actor/celebrity/etc I learned by watching TV, so I'm sure there have been liberties unintentionally taken there. But hopefully I know something about friendship, and family, and being an adult.

"Carlos?" someone calls from behind him.

Kendall had gotten Katie when the band broke up. There are papers to that effect that Carlos keeps in his spare room, which is not an office no matter what Logan says, because Carlos is not the type of person that has a home office. Everything about the end sucked, so it's not something Carlos dwells on.

So when he turns around, Carlos doesn't recognize the girl at the other end of the hallway who stopped him. "Yes?" he says.

"It is you. Hi," she says, finally catching up with him. "It's Katie." And if he still doesn't get it, well, no one ever accused him of being the smart one. "Katie Knight. How are you? I haven't seen you in forever."

"Oh my god, Katie," he says, pulling her right off her feet in a hug. "You look…" hot, and not at all like the little kid sister he remembers, but he can't say that. "Good," he finally finishes, putting her down. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm rep'ing Shayna," Katie says, while a Blackberry starts going off where it's stacked on an iPhone, which is stacked on a clipboard she's holding. Shayna's the new tween star who's voicing his hamster in Otto. The thing about doing voices for animation is that he hasn't actually met Shayna yet.

"Oh, wow, that's awesome." Katie nods distractedly, furiously typing at the Blackberry. "I guess I'll leave you to that," Carlos says. Katie nods again, then stops and looks up. "No, wait, you're not getting away that easily this time. Give me your number," and she hands him the iPhone.

After the seventh time Carlos had to change his number, he finally learned not to give it out to just anyone. But he doesn't hesitate here. He even sticks out his tongue and snaps a picture of himself to go with it while Katie's still buried in whatever work crisis is happening on her other phone.

When Katie looks up, Carlos hands the iPhone back, and she immediately dives into it and starts typing away. 

"I'll see you around," Carlos says. Before Katie can answer his phone goes off in his pocket. He pulls it out to find a new text from an unknown number. _The Rose Room, 8pm_.

He looks up. "I'll see you tonight," Katie says, smirking, before the Blackberry buzzes again and she's back to work.

It doesn't occur to Carlos until after to wonder whether she's old enough to drink yet.

\---

Katie beats Carlos to the bar. 

When he gets there, he spots her immediately amongst the dark wood and dark mood lighting of the place. Katie is sitting at a little round table across from the bar, martini untouched in front of her. She's got the heels of her shoes hooked guilelessly on the rung of the bar chair and she's fiddling with the skewer of olives in her drink. She looks like she's waiting for someone, and a beautiful girl like that doesn't get left alone in a bar for long. Carlos shuffles over quickly. "You're supposed to let the guys buy you drinks."

"I don't know about 'guys'," Katie says, dropping the olives back in her glass and smiling up at Carlos, "but I'll let you get the next round."

"Is there waiter service, or should I get myself something at the bar?"

"It's probably quicker to get it yourself," Katie says.

"Okay, be right back." Carlos makes his way to the bar. They have a better selection of beers on tap than he was expecting for a swank cocktail bar and he's once again thankful that microbreweries are hot right now.

Beer in hand, he returns to the table. "I couldn't remember if you'd be old enough to drink," Carlos says, sitting down across from her.

"I'm not," Katie says, "not 'til next month."

"Let's pretend I didn't ask, then," Carlos says as Katie takes a sip of her drink.

"Works for me," Katie says. "So, what have you been up to in the like million years since I've seen you?"

"I've started coaching a boys' hockey team," Carlos says. "It's with the Boys and Girls club downtown. They have a whole bunch of people who come in and do basketball and baseball with the kids but they didn't have a hockey team, so I offered to start one. We practice every Thursday afternoon. I don't know what's gonna happen when I have to be on location, I've been trying to convince James to come," and oops. 

Carlos isn't sure if he should mention James; if Katie's talked to any of them since the end of Big Time Rush. Katie doesn't seem thrown off by the mention and his inability to think before he speaks is something he's had since they last knew each other. (He's gotten better at thinking after he speaks in the intervening years, which is better than not thinking at all.) 

But Katie nods for him to continue, an interested look on her face, so he keeps going, words speeding up in snowball gathering nerves and excitement as it rolls downhill, hoping he's not making a conversational faux pas as he continues, "But he's too afraid of a stray puck ruining his pretty face," and Carlos smiles to show he's joking. "Actually, he probably hasn't played in ages and doesn't want to suck. So, I've been trying to see if we can get the guys from the Kings to come down and help or at least to take the guys on the team to a game or something. Most of them have never been to a real hockey game, can you believe it?" 

"Seriously, hockey?"

"What?"

"You're Otto the space octopus. You have a mantle full of Kids Choice Awards. Pretty much anyone else would want to talk about that, and you just want to talk about hockey."

"I can talk about that if you want." Carlos shrugs self-consciously. He's under no illusions. He knows he has the best job in the world. He'll gladly talk about it. But there's more to him than his job.

"No," Katie says, stopping his train of thought. "It's just, it's really good to see you again. I missed you."

"You know that Kendall--"

"No," Katie cuts him off. "Let's not do that. I know something went down but I don't want to know. Lets go back to hockey. Or anything else."

"Let's talk about what you're doing now. Last time I saw you, you were like," and Carlos holds his hand out at about waist level, "yay high."

"I was not," Katie protests, swatting at him.

"Fine, here," and Carlos moves his hand up by a miniscule amount before dropping it. "No really, you're, what, a talent manager?"

"Sort of. I was interning for a while, since I'm still have a semester and a half until graduation, but I could do this job since I was," and she holds her hand out, mimicking Carlos, "yay high, so when Shayna was looking for an agent I jumped to sign her. She's my only client, but it's working out and once school is off my plate I can worry about signing more people to my agency."

"I have no doubt you'll own this town by then," Carlos tells her completely honestly.

"That's the plan," Katie says, playing with the olive skewer again. 

"So, you're in college," Carlos says, and can't imagine it. Carlos obviously never went himself, but the impression he's gotten from the few shitty teen comedies he's been in is that it's four years spent alternatively wasted and hung over, having ill advised hook-ups and streaking hijinks. Katie's been too grown up for that since she was eight. But still, "you got a college boyfriend or something?

"No." Katie's answer is definitive. "I-" and after everything else, the near decade since they've seen each other last and the bad blood between Kendall and the rest of them and Carlos's own awkward rambling, this is what seems to trip Katie up. Deciding to continue, "there's a lot of guys in the industry that are dicks," she says shrugging reluctantly.

"Well, I'll be the perfect gentleman," Carlos tells her.

"Oh no, that's not directed at you," Katie says blushing, looking down at her drink, then up at him from under ridiculously fluttering eyelids. "I can take you." 

Carlos is pretty sure that Katie didn't just actively invite him to hit on her. But he's not sure. "Okay," he says neutrally. He hasn't gotten any better at reading women in his years in Hollywood. He's just gotten famous enough that any women who've invited him for drinks have already made the decision that they'd sleep with him. Most of them decided that before they ever met him. (He really likes not having to chase women who are totally uninterested. Waiting for interested women to come to him is great.) The thing that's totally weirding him out about the whole thing is that if he didn't know Katie he totally _would_ hit on her. She's gorgeous and confident about it without it being a put on. She's not a museum of beauty like so many people around this town are: be careful of the makeup, watch the hair, the dress is taped on, look but don't touch. In fact, everything about her makes him want to reach out with his hands: her dress looks soft to the touch, and it's short enough that her legs seem to go on forever. Even her shoes are fuzzy (suede, his internalized stylist says). And it would be so easy lean over and push her bangs back when they fall down over her eyes. But then he remembers this is _Katie_.

Katie doesn't seem to be having any of the same issues. "You should get me another drink and then tell me more about your hockey team. I haven't seen a game in forever."

\---

Carlos did not mean to get Katie drunk. Sometime between the last drink and the current one he threw out the conversational, "I don't know if you have to be up tomorrow. I don't have work until late, but if you need to be up..."

Katie immediately protested that it was fine, that she wants to stay, that he should get her another drink. Carlos wanted to stay, wanted to keep talking to her, so he didn't protest. And well, you can't sit at a bar without a drink.

He can feel the beers he's had, but Katie's definitely drunk now. Not terribly so, but her eyes are bright and her cheeks are red. She's not quite slurring, but her words are coming out rushed, tripping and stumbling into one another as she tells him about how she ran the largest Castle Crashers bookie site on the web all through high school. 

"I'd still be doing it, too, if they didn't ban me," she says. "It took some start up capital, but once it was up and running I was making good money. But it turns out there are gaming laws and shit that say you have to be over 21 to run a gambling establishment. It's not even like I was betting on the games.

"It was pretty funny, actually, to see their faces when they met me for the first time at the world championships. It was in Vegas that year," Katie says. "They couldn't believe I was the one behind CastleCashers.com. When I was finally able to pull out my laptop and prove it, I was out like that," and she snaps for emphasis. The snap becomes more of a flail and she puts her hands back down on the table to steady herself.

"What did you do?" Carlos asks.

Katie shrugs. "I spent the weekend sunbathing and riding the roller coaster at New York-New York. Then I started college."

"That's it?" he asks. "You just walked away?"

"Yeah," Katie says. "It's not like it was my dream to be a bookie or anything. It was fun, but whatever." 

Carlos is barely following the thread of the story, because Katie's got her feet kicked out, rocking her heels back and forth on the rung of his chair, bump, bump, bumping against his feet. At the next bump, Carlos bumps back and Katie pauses her story. "Sorry," she says.

"Don't be, it's cool," Carlos says. 

"I love chairs where your feet can't reach the floor," Katie says, dropping her previous topic altogether. "They're so much fun."

"I know, they're great," Carlos says, catching her foot between his. "And I think you should probably be done with drinking tonight."

"I think so, too," Katie says. "Can I get a ride with you?"

"Sure."

"Thanks," Katie says. 

Carlos leaves Katie at the table to close his tab. When he gets back, Katie gets up and she's not particularly unsteady, but he's happy to wrap an arm around her waist when she stands just on this side of too close to him.

He's a gentleman and opens the car door for her, letting her slip into the seat.

Katie leaves her heels in the foot-well of the passenger's side, to pull her feet up and curl up into the seat of his Range Rover with her back to the door while he walks around the car to get into the drivers seat. 

"So, where am I taking you?" he asks her, looking over at her sideways. She's looking back at him straight-on.

"How about your place?"

"You sure? I can drive you home. It's not a problem."

"I'm sure."

"Okay," Carlos says, pulling out of the parking spot.

\---

Katie doesn't put her shoes back on when they get to Carlos's, carrying them in her hand, shivering in her stocking-feet and huddling close against his side as they walk up the path to his front door. She's even smaller flat-footed and Carlos wants to wrap her up in his arms and whisk her up to his room. But he's not going to, because she's Katie and she's drunk and --

In the front hall of his house, Katie surges up on her toes, grabs the front of his shirt, pulls him down and kisses him. 

Carlos kisses back. 

Pulling away, reluctantly putting his hands on her shoulder, Carlos says "No, Katie, we can't." 

"Why not?"

"You're drunk, for one," Carlos says.

"Not that drunk," she says, rolling her eyes and muttering, "goddamn liquid courage." At normal volume she continues, "I'm drunk because I want this, not that I want this because I'm drunk."

"What?"

"I _promise_ I'd want his even if I weren't drinking," Katie says carefully, smooth and convincing. Her eyes are glassy and bright where they're locked with his, before she looks down. "Just, when you tell people about this, lie and say I was suave and mysterious in seducing you."

"Bragging about getting laid got old somewhere around the time I could legally drink." He can't think about the rest of what she's saying.

"Not the point, although its good to know all the assholes I know will outgrow it. So, are we doing this? Because if not, I'm gonna go die of embarrassment in your living room," Katie says, nodding towards the room behind Carlos over his shoulder

Carlos really isn't that good of a person. He takes Katie's hand and pulls her with him up the stairs to his bedroom.

\---

Carlos wakes quickly when his alarm rings, shutting it off before the first ring-ring-ring finishes. Katie grumbles next to him at the alarm, but remains asleep, completely oblivious to where she is or who she's with. Carlos is not oblivious. He doesn't regret it, because holy hell Katie, but he can't in good conscious say it was the right thing to do either. 

He may as well get up if he's not going to sleep, so he slips out of bed and heads for his bathroom. Katie immediately burrows down in the warm space he leaves in the bed. He showers and gets dressed quietly, then slips away to the kitchen. 

He brings a breakfast of coffee and toast up with him when he goes to wake Katie.

"Hey, sorry, I need to get going, I have a meeting," he tells her. "So, if you want a ride back to your car you've got to get up."

"Ugh." Katie makes a noise of displeasure, but she sits up and runs her hands through her hair. "I'm up." The sheet slides down and it's brought into sharp relief that Katie's naked in his bed and he's now fully dressed for the day. Katie puts her hair up in a ponytail and pulls the sheet up. She takes the proffered breakfast, abandoning the toast on the night stand, wrapping her hands around the coffee mug.

"So," Carlos starts, saying something just to say anything. "Do you get to come on the press tour for Otto with Shayna? For the first one we had a hell of a time in Australia." The question isn't important, he just needs something to distract him from staring. Work is safe.

"I can't; not before coffee," Katie says, waving Carlos's attempt at conversation away. It's almost worse with the sheet covering her; if he stares he can see the outline of her nipple through the fabric, and so he's staring.

Katie takes the sheet and coffee with her when she gets up and collects her clothes, taking it all with her to the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Katie's request for silence carries over to the drive back to her car. Carlos can't decide if it's awkward or not. If Katie doesn't say anything he can't get a read on her, and they're fast approaching the bar where her car's waiting

They're still quiet when Carlos turns into the parking lot. He can't let her go without saying anything. "We should do that again." It's probably a terrible idea, but he wants the 'that' to include her coming home with him but he means going for drinks and being friends again too if that's all she wants.

Katie leans in and kisses him, quick and teasing, just a moment of coffee and toothpaste before she hops out of his car. Leaning into the still opened door, she says, "I borrowed your toothbrush, I hope you don't mind." Then, "I'll text you," before closing the door behind her. Carlos watches the sway of her hips as she walks to her car.

\---

Katie texts Carlos. 

They both have weird, random schedules. They manage dinner that weekend, which ends back at Carlos's house, and the next week there's coffee between meetings and class and more meetings for Katie and a long stretch of nothing for Carlos. Carlos tries not to think about it too much. If he does, he remembers that Katie is Kendall's little sister. Presumably Katie has spoken to Kendall in the last ten years, would know if he's still in LA, hiding in plain sight with a mundane job and a house and a normal life right under their noses, or if his anger carried him to a new life up in the mountains of Nepal or some other county he couldn't find on a map, or something else entirely. She would know if Kendall ever forgave Logan and the rest of them or if he still has it, anger buffeted smooth like beach glass after ten years, but there nonetheless. Carlos isn't sure if he's forgiven Kendall for leaving them. So he doesn't think about it. 

Instead, Carlos invites Katie to come skating with him at the rink after hockey practice one day. Carlos doesn't know whether he'd forgotten that Katie can skate or if he never knew, but she brings her own skates and zips around the rink, face flushed pink from a combination of the cold and the exertion and it's so cute he has to put on a burst of speed to catch up and give her a kiss. 

They spend a lazy Sunday morning in bed. Then midterms start and the next weekend Katie rings the doorbell late Saturday night, desperate and needy, staying just long enough to work out the stress of the day between his sheets. 

Carlos isn't filming at the moment, so he relishes in not being contractually obligated to stay uninjured, and drags Katie paint-balling.

Without discussing it, they avoid places where people would know who Carlos is or care. 

They also avoid Katie's apartment, but that's just because Carlos has a mansion and Katie has a pre-med roommate in a tiny college apartment who appreciates silence.

\---

A couple weeks later, Carlos gets a text from Katie: _come to my birthday party saturday_. It's exactly like the other texts he's gotten from her ( _drinks, Blue Bar, 11pm_ , _dinner, Gino's, 7pm_ , _sex, my bed, as soon as you can get here_ ), and absolutely nothing like it all. There are other people at birthday parties, and Katie's always been smarter than Carlos but he likes to think he's closed the gap some in the decade since they last knew each other. A birthday party isn't just hooking up. Carlos is going to meet Katie's friends. That's a dating thing. 

\---

Carlos calls James. James will be, well, not objective exactly, but the closest thing to it Carlos has in his circle of friends. Kendall was always the level-headed one. But the end was Logan and Kendall tearing the band apart while James and Carlos held on. James is the best Carlos is going to do. 

"So," Carlos says with an overly long follow up pause, "I'm going to tell you something and you absolutely can't be a dick about it."

"I'm never a dick."

"James, seriously," Carlos says.

"Fine, fine, I will specifically not be a dick about whatever you are about to tell me."

"So, I've been seeing this girl," Carlos starts, words slow and hesitant, still not sure he should be telling James this.

"Why would I be a dick about that?" James asks. "That's awesome."

"Will you shut up and let me finish?" Carlos says, pissed, and then hesitant again. "It's Katie."

"What? Who?" James asks.

"Katie, Katie Knight is the girl I'm seeing."

On the other end of the phone, James bursts into laughter.

"Hey, you promised not to be a dick." Carlos talks right over James laughing.

"You know, if you wanted Kendall to kill you, there are easier ways to do it," James says. "And isn't she like 12? And how did you even find her again?"

"She's _like_ 20, asshole. And she's managing the girl who voices my talking hamster in Otto. We ran into each other at the studio."

"Well, I guess Katie wasn't lying a million years ago when she said she didn't have a crush on me," James says, losing his battle against the giggles, laughs escaping into the phone again.

"That's what you care about?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"That Kendall isn't going to kill me?" Carlos asks, but he knows it's not a question. He's a dead man.

"Listen, is it weird you're dating Katie? Yes. But it's obviously going well if you're asking me about it and it's been a while since you've had that, so my first point still stands-- good for you, that's awesome."

"Thanks."

"Also, can I be there when you tell Logan?" James asks, sounding giddy with excitement at the lecture Carlos is due for there.

"No," Carlos says and hangs up. But he does so with a smile on his face.

\---

"Hey cradle robber," Camille says, dropping onto the couch in the studio's break room next to Carlos. Camille voices the female lead, Plum, opposite Carlos in Otto. It doesn't make a difference while recording, all but the smallest amount of it being done alone in a tiny, grey sound-booth, but it makes promotion fun. And when James shows up at premieres on her arm the media like to drag out photos of them at the Palm Woods, young and just starting out, to talk about how far they've all come.

"James wasn't supposed to be a dick about this," Carlos grumbles. "Or tell you." Although its not really a surprise that he did. Sometimes Carlos thinks they've developed married people telepathy (they've got everything else married people have, up to and including Carlos’s goddaughter Isabel (who goes by Izzy), despite not being married). 

"Sorry," Camille says, not at all sorry. She actually bouncing up and down in excitement in her seat next to him. "Do you want to hear a secret to make up for it?"

"A secret James doesn't know?" Carlos asks. That would be reason to be as excited as Camille is.

"No, James knows this one," Camille says. "But it's a good one."

"Let's have it."

"I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations," Carlos says turning sideways to wrap her in a hug. "How far along are you? Is it a boy or a girl? What does Izzy think?" Carlos asks in rapid fire, letting go. It must be early, she doesn't look pregnant yet. Then again, in Hollywood people are magic at hiding things like pregnancies when they don't want it getting out. Camille hid it when she was pregnant with Izzy for what seemed like forever. Carlos knows exactly how unplanned she was, heard the whole thing from James while he was recording his first solo album, not sure if he'd have a career, not sure if they could be a family, not sure if Camille would ever forgive him for putting her bourgeoning movie career on hold. It was before Otto, when Carlos and Camille were only friends through her dating James and not in their own right.

"I'm three months. We find out if it's a boy or a girl in another six weeks. We haven't told Izzy yet," Camille answers.

Carlos doesn't know if they were trying or what but this is night and day different compared to the first time. Camille is glowing. "This is so exciting, seriously, congratulations."

\---

Carlos meets with his trainer on Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, he goes shopping for a birthday present for Katie. He has an assistant who could do this, but that feels like cheating. If someone's close enough to give a present to, they should matter enough to pick something out himself. Or at least that's what Carlos thinks when he's not in the process of picking out a gift.

When he's at Bloomingdale's he wishes he had just let his assistant buy something.

"Can I help you?" a sales lady calls out to him on this third lap of the jewelry section.

"Um," Carlos says, walking over to her counter, "maybe."

"Let me guess, a gift," the sales person says. Carlos nods. "For a girlfriend," she finishes.

"Um," Carlos says.

"Or maybe no quite a girlfriend, yet." He gives her a shrewd look, trying to asses whether she recognizes him. If she does, she has no tells. In fact, despite the offer to help, she looks pretty unimpressed with his whole awkward silent thing. Carlos can appreciate that.

"I'm guessing you do this a lot," he says, smiling, making the decision to take her help.

"You can say that," she says smiling back. "So, did you have any ideas you wanted to start with?"

\---

Friday, he takes Katie out to dinner for her birthday and shocks her speechless with big, sparkling diamond studs.

\---

Carlos gets to Katie's birthday fashionably late because he was on the phone with foreign press and the reception kept cutting out and it took forever. The party's at a classier bar than any twenty first birthday he's been to. All of Big Time Rush had birthdays on tour. They stopped at shitty bars along the highways where the crew could get them wasted with no one knowing who they were or selling cell-phone photos to TMZ. 

This isn't a place to get wasted at all, it's a place to sip fancy cocktails and smooth-talk your way into million dollar contracts. Katie's got a private room for the party in the back and her guests are an assorted cross-section of people. There are bright eyed college students and fellow interns. Then there are some older, more established people, only distinguished as such by the cost of their clothes, jewelry, and watches, because no one looks "older" in Hollywood. There are a trio of people Carlos is pretty sure are from the pages of a magazine, two girls and a very gay guy. Carlos wonders if he's single. He could introduce him to Logan the next time Logan's in town, if Logan's forgiven him for the last time he tried to set him up with someone. He's sure this would go better. He trusts Katie's taste in friends.

He finds Katie talking to one of the older women, interrupts just long enough to say hello and offer to get Katie a birthday drink, which she takes him up on immediately, despite the row of birthday drinks on the table in front of her.

"That one's mine," Carlos hears Katie say as he returns from the bar with her drink. Carlos passes the drink over, freeing his hand so he can say, "Hi, my name's Carlos," and offer it.

"Hi, I'm Shannon," the woman says. "It's nice to meet you."

"Carlos is an old friend," Katie explains. That's not exactly a lie and he's pretty sure Katie's already told Shannon the actual truth of it, he can't figure out what else the conversation he walked into could have been about, but Carlos is willing to follow her lead. If Carlos puts his hand on the small of Katie's back, enjoying the way she leans back into his touch, well, he's just being friendly.

And if Katie leans against him more and more as she gets wasted until she's plastered against him, sprawled on one of the lounge chairs, Carlos stops after two drinks and remains the perfect gentleman. At least until they get home, because even if they're not fooling anyone, well, there's nothing wrong with a little discretion.

\---

Logan comes to town because he has a rare three-day weekend, which coincides with a club show that James is playing. It's just a fun thing, not part of a tour, to play some of the new music he's working on. It's mostly industry people anyway, but even so Carlos made a beeline for the bouncer-guarded balcony. Logan's coming straight to the show from the airport, flying down as soon as his rotation ended to make it for the Friday show, but isn't there yet. 

Carlos is having a drink and talking to one of the guys who worked with James on his first album when he gets a text that Logan's there. Logan's been out of the business long enough that when he's alone, other than the occasional mid-20s woman, no one recognizes him. So he needs Carlos to come vouch for him so he can get up to VIP.

"Sorry, I got to go rescue Logan from the little people," Carlos tells the guy.

"No problem," the guy says.

Carlos heads down the stairs, the bouncer moving aside to let him down. At the bottom of the stairs he and Logan bro-hug, backslapping and all. "Hey man," Carlos says. "I'm glad you could escape the hospital for long enough to come see your bestest friends."

"Good to see you, too."

"You have all your stuff with you," Carlos says, looking Logan over. Logan's got a duffle bag hanging off his shoulder. "Come on up, you can put it down and grab a drink."

"As long as it's just a drink, and not some stunt to find me a guy."

"Just a drink this time, I promise," Carlos says, nodding at the bouncer as the bouncer steps aside to let both Carlos and Logan pass, nodding back at Carlos with a just-doing-my-job shrug. In retrospect, trying to set Logan up with Robert was a terrible idea. It was obvious that Robert was hung up on his ex. And Mike had the wrong opinion about Cantor's theory. Carlos didn't know you could have a wrong opinion about math. And well, Clint may have had a rap sheet, but it's not like James would know that the sound tech on his last tour once tried to burn down his ex-boyfriend's college dorm. That just doesn't come up in normal conversation. Clint seemed perfectly nice on tour. Plus, that one was James, so it totally shouldn't count against Carlos.

Logan stores his stuff in the corner, under a chair that's already loaded up with an overwhelming heap of coats and purses.

"Come on, what are you drinking tonight?" Carlos asks. "I'm getting the first round."

"Whatever'll get me drunk," Logan says.

"That's what alcohol does," Carlos says. "Rough week?"

"No more than usual," Logan says, while Carlos orders. But Logan doesn't get to elaborate, the lights going down and a hush falling on the room as James takes to the stage.

\---

After the show, and James's requisite shmoozing, and the venue kicking them out, they move to a different bar to continue their drinking. Logan's telling Carlos about the woman he saw in the ER who's going to be on an episode of TLC's 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant'. Logan didn't realize people could actually be that dumb, he's known some pretty dumb people in his life (famous people tend to be beautiful and not smart), but real life is showing him that he hasn't even cracked the surface of stupidity and the many, varied ways people can injure themselves (although he'd still rather always see the stupid, good-story injuries than the sob stories, sick kids, and terrible accidents). 

James crashes into Carlos and Logan from behind, arms landing heavy on their shoulders interrupting. "Hey bros," James says. He's clearly had a few drinks without them, leaning heavy on their shoulders. Carlos and Logan are at about the same point, and they all sway with James's momentum until they stabilize.

"Hey James," Carlos says, "great show."

"I see enough of you," James brushes off Carlos's comment. "Logan, man, how are you?" James says, bro-hugging him.

"Good, good," Logan says, "and hello to you too."

"Your drink is empty," James says, gesturing and the just a pile of ice in the glass in Logan's hand. "We need to fix that. Who wants shots? You want shots? Of course you do," James just keeps talking. And then louder, to everyone in the immediate vicinity, "Hey, who wants shots?" 

James orders shots for the group, the three of them, the guys in his band, and assorted friends who are in. James pulls one guy over who's making protesting noises, saying, "You too, Matt."

They all slam back the shots of Jack with the appropriate toasting and clinking, cheering and wincing.

"Logan," James says, putting his empty shot glass back on the bar, "this is Matt. Matt, this is Logan. Matt is managed by NMC too. He's the hands in the RCM CBT Globalnet Sanyoid Carve 6G commercials. Logan was in Big Time Rush with me."

"But now I'm studying to be a doctor," Logan cuts in with a stink eye at James. Carlos promised that he wouldn't try to set Logan up with anyone, but James made no claims to the same.

"But now, he's doing his residency at UCSF," James finishes cheerfully, willfully oblivious to the death glares Logan's sending him.

"Cool," Matt says. "Do you like it up there?"

"Yes, it's great," Logan says. No matter how much he doesn't want to be set up, he's too nice not to politely continue the conversation. It's not Matt's fault Logan's best friends are jerks.

"Where do you live? I'm from Richmond originally."

"Oh, awesome," Logan says, giving James a final nasty look as James pulls Carlos away.

\---

At some point between drinks Logan manages to shake Matt, sometime after that Carlos calls for a car, and James suggests they go back to his place, he has a pool out back they can sit by, keep drinking, and catch up. They've been ending their nights sitting by the pool long before James had one to offer up, going back to the Palmwood days, and somehow it's exactly where they always end up when Logan is in town.

"Quiet," James says unlocking the door, "Izzy'll be asleep."

"Okay," Carlos agrees.

"Quiet," Logan parrots.

And they're quiet in that they don't say anything once James finally manages to get the door open and they stumble in, lights off. But the sounds of them clomping around on the foyer's marble floors, bumping into walls and each other indiscriminately is plenty loud enough for Camille to get up from and see what's going on.

"Morons," she says affectionately.

"Hey, Camille," James says, wrapping his arms around her, giving her an uncoordinated, drunk peck of a kiss.

"Well, boys night out seems to have been a lot more drunk than girl's night out," she says, laughing.

"But girl's night had a lot more 'ladies and magenta-men' pedicures and, hmm," James pauses for a second, face buried in Camille's hair, "honey and red raspberry products." No one points out the obvious reason she's not drinking; that she's pregnant. 

"It's creepy, the way you do that," Logan says to James instead, because no man should be able to identify beauty products. (There's no reason to question if James is right. He is.)

"We were just going to hang out by the pool," James tells Camille.

"Okay," she says. "Have fun, Logan, Carlos," she says, nodding good-nights to them.

James leads the way they all know, through the house and out back to the patio, grabbing three beers from the poolside fridge on the way, passing them out as they sit down in familiar seats. James bought this house with Camille after the end of the group, but for a drunken moment Carlos wonders why Kendall's not sitting in the fourth chair. But that chair has always been Camille's. 

Logan sighs, sinking into his poolside lounger. "I could go to sleep right here."

"We have beds and shit," James says.

"I know, I'm staying in one."

"You know, you can just work less," Carlos says.

"You know, my friends can not try to constantly set me up with guys when I just want to relax and be on vacation."

"We just want you to have a good time here."

"And getting laid is a great time."

"And fall in love so someone can watch over you and make sure you don't work yourself to death and also move back to LA so we can see you more often."

"Sometimes," Logan sighs, "I wish you were less good friends."

"Thanks," Carlos rolls his eyes. "Besides, this was all James, I had nothing to do with it."

"Why don't you try to find someone for Carlos?" Logan asks, getting a shrewd look in his eye. "Give it a rest for me."

James lights up like it's Christmas, only evil, and Logan squints up to look questioningly at Carlos from where he's sprawled in the lounger. "Why does James have his evil genius headshot look on?" Logan asks him.

"Umm..." Carlos stalls taking a deliberate gulp of beer.

"I do get to be here when you tell him," James cheers, throwing a fist pump into the air in excitement.

"Tell me what?" Logan asks, pushing himself up so that he's sitting up. 

"I'm, uh, seeing someone," Carlos says haltingly.

"Okay," Logan says. "That's cool."

"Come on," James crows, "tell him who."

"Whom," Logan says. He doesn't care that much about their grammar, he just likes to piss them off. Then he asks, "What am I missing?"

Carlos sighs and glares and James. "It's not a big deal," he says. "I'm dating Katie Knight."

"Katie, Katie?" Logan asks, getting it way quicker than James did, even with the cloud of alcohol in his system. "Now I know I've fallen asleep and am dreaming this."

"Umm," Carlos says.

"She's like," and Logan pauses, looking up with the blank stare of doing math in his head, "like, 21. And _Katie_."

"Yeah, I know. And you're better than James. He said she was 'like, 12'," Carlos says repeating James's first comment.

"Well, duh I'm better than James," Logan says.

"Right here, you guys," James says. He's not nearly as vain as he was when he was younger (although, and this is definitely an argument for his being vain, he would say it's not vanity if you've been on People's most beautiful list enough times to back it up), but there's still some good natured ribbing he can't handle.

"You know, I'm too drunk and tired to deal with this now. Set Carlos up or don't, I don't really care. You just got to stop setting me up."

"I make no promises," James says

\---

They all crash at James and Camille's that night, or really, so late that it's that morning, and it's well into the afternoon by the time they pull themselves out of their respective beds, an assortment of giant sunglasses hiding their hungover eyes.

There's a state-of-the-art coffee maker in the kitchen and that's where they've congregated. Carlos is looking around at James, Logan, the completely disused stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, thinking about how if he wants something beyond coffee, it's up to him to get up and make it. James has other people cook for him. Logan took to the college student's GrubHub.com lifestyle and hasn't yet outgrown it.

"Brunch?" James asks.

"Yes," Carlos says emphatically. He does not want to have to cook.

"Yeah," Logan agrees.

The decision feels like a lot of effort after the last night, and they sit there, not moving that fast.

"Carlos, Carlos, Carlos," a little voice says, feet stomping toward them from the front door, as Izzy runs in to give Carlos a hug. Carlos takes his godfather duties very seriously, spoiling her at every opportunity.

"Hey, Izzy," Carlos says.

"Hey," James says. "What am I? Chopped liver?"

Izzy rolls her eyes. "Hi Dad. Hi Logan," she says, then back to Carlos, "Mom said I couldn't wake you up earlier and then she said that you might be gone when we got back from ballet and I was soooooo sad." Izzy has all of the dramatics of her parents added together. It's adorable. 

"You got here just in time," Carlos tells her. "We are going out for breakfast."

"Breakfast!" Izzy says. "It's already lunch time."

"Well, then you can get lunch and I'll get breakfast."

"I can come?"

"Camille, can Izzy come to brunch with us?" Carlos looks up to ask.

"Sure," she says.

"I have to get changed," Izzy says, jumping up. "I'll be right back."

\---

Later at brunch, the topic of Katie comes up again. Logan waits until Izzy is engrossed in telling James a very involved story about how Plum didn't invite Em to her birthday party.

"Really?" Logan asks. "Katie? I didn't just drunk-hallucinate that?"

"Yeah," Carlos tells him. "Don't be weird about it." He wants to say 'don't be a dick about it,' but Izzy's there so he doesn't.

"I won't, it's just weird," Logan says, totally negating Carlos's words if not his intention.

"So people keep telling me, but it's really not."

"Well, if you're happy."

"I am."

"It's cool that you're dating again."

"Thanks." Carlos gives him a wry grin.

"Who are you dating?" Izzy asks. "Do you have a _girlfriend_? What's her name? Have you _kissed_? Can I meet her?" she continues in rapid-fire questions.

"Maybe," Carlos says.

"You maybe have a girlfriend? How do you _maybe_ have a girlfriend?"

"No, _maybe_ you can meet her."

"Come on, _please_. She can come to my dance recital. You're coming, right?"

"We'll see," Carlos says. "Now, what happened with Plum?" he asks, redirecting the conversation away from his dating life. And Izzy is happy to oblige because Em's birthday party is the most important thing ever to her eight-year-old self.

\---

Carlos feels bad for Logan for all of his and James's failed attempts to set him up with someone if this is what it feels like to continually have your dating life interfered with by your friends. Because James has been on Carlos about them all going out on a double date.

At first Carlos was hesitant. There's so much history between all of them, and he doesn't want to bring that into him and Katie. Carlos has fun with Katie, but even more than that, she feels right in his bed and in his life in a scary, bubbling, happy way, like a youtube video of a baby deer standing up for the first time, joyous and wonderful and just a little unsteady on it's fragile, spindly legs. He wants to leave the carnivorous cheetah of the past long behind them. (Also, this is why Carlos doesn't do metaphors.)

But meeting Katie's friends didn't change anything. And the more time passes, the more confident Carlos is that Katie isn't going anywhere.

By that point, Carlos would agree just to get James off his back, but James is off doing holiday radio shows around the country and not in LA, which means James is being even more annoying than usual.

Camille has a movie coming out, and she invites him to the premiere. It's a nice gesture, but moot, since his publicist has had it on his schedule for ages. Otto 2 doesn't come out until the summer, but it's never too early to start getting people thinking about, and the story of how they're all BFFs always gets good play in the media. So he's going.

The movie is a romantic comedy, something about brides (or weddings? shoes? maybe all three, Carlos isn't really clear), the type that no guy would ever see of his own volition, without being dragged by a girlfriend or wife or something. He's going for the red carpet, to tell Camille how awesome she is in it, and to hang out with Camille and James at the party afterward. But it would be cool if someone could enjoy the movie out of it. So, he invites Katie to come with him.

\---

At the Plus One movie premiere Carlos has to walk the red carpet and do interviews. That's the whole reason he's here. Katie doesn't, so she gets escorted straight through and into the theater where she can get a drink and wait for him. Normally Carlos doesn't mind press -- he's a pretty boring person as far as celebrity scandal goes -- so it's all small talk and what he's working on. But he doesn't want to leave Katie hanging. He lets the paparazzi take the requisite pictures in front of the movie poster and is ushered through a handful of interviews where he tells the reporters how he's there to support Camille, how excited he is for the film, how they just finished wrapping the voice on Otto 2, and when they just have to ask if he brought a plus one to the premiere (and they say it just like that, "we just _have_ to ask,") he tells them he's at the premiere with a friend.

\---

Carlos and Katie settle into one of the booths set up in the space. The furniture is low to the ground, the kind that you sink into and into each other on. It's easier to not fight the couch and Carlos puts his arm around Katie so they can more comfortably sit falling into each other. Katie crosses her legs towards him, toe of her heel rubbing against his shin, universal unequivocal sex invite. Maybe there's something to these romantic comedies.

The plan was to hang out and wait for the crowd of well-wishers to thin out around Camille and James (who's sitting next to her, playing Mr. Roberts for the evening), so that they can actually talk and not just give a quick word of congrats. But there's waiter service at the table, constantly bring fresh drinks, and passed hors d'oeuvres circulating past them. And Carlos and Katie get caught up in a debate about whether women are more likely to put out after a romantic comedy date. 

Katie's in the middle of an impassioned argument of, "No, the movie has nothing to do with it. You would never bring a guy you hadn't already decided to sleep with to a romantic comedy, if you're on the fence, any guy is going to look bad compared to the fantasy men in the movie," when they're interrupted.

"This sounds like a conversation I shouldn't be interrupting." Camille grins at them, not sorry at all.

"Camille," Carlos says jumping up to give her a hug. "You were wonderful."

"Yes, wonderful," Katie says, also giving her a hug, as Carlos moves on to bro-hug James hello.

"Wow, Katie, you look great," Camille says, pulling back from the hug to look at her.

Carlos can't blame her. Katie's pulled out all the stops for tonight. She's wearing a short, drapey dress with spaghetti straps that's all sorts of bright colors offset against her pale skin and dark hair. The earrings Carlos gave her glitter in her ears, and Carlos loves seeing her in them.

He told her how incredible she looks when they picked her up. Katie will accept any and all complements about how smart she is, how she can work a room, and in regards to crushing business opposition, but she freezes up at complements on how she looks. And now is no different. "Thanks," Katie says, blushing, "you too." Camille is wearing a short shift dress made up of vertical black and see-through stripes, black slip visible under the see through parts. "And am I allowed to say congratulations? Carlos told me, but if I'm not supposed to know, pretend I didn't say anything."

"No, it's fine, thank you." Camille takes the pregnant woman's initiative to sit down, since they're all standing next to a couch anyway, and they all follow her lead.

"Hey man," James says to Carlos, while Katie and Camille talk about babies. "Katie is hot."

"I know."

"No, but like--"

"I _know_."

"Also, Katie is right here."

"I- um-"

"Don't worry, I can still out think you with both hands tied behind my back."

"You're on," James says.

Katie rolls her eyes. Even Carlos knows that didn't make any sense. But it breaks the ice. Carlos and Katie don't stay too much longer anyway. Camille really needs to work, and there are better things Carlos and Katie can be doing in Carlos's bedroom.

\---

"Did you tell every reporter you spoke to about how you're there with a 'friend'," and Katie risks the iPad to do the finger quotes that go with that, "and then proceed to be all over me at the party?"

"Umm," Carlos says because he's still half asleep and half completely distracted by Katie naked and wrapped up in his sheets, walking around the bedroom, and that doesn't leave any halves for serious conversation.

"You don't have to answer," Katie says, "I already read all about it on Perez."

"Maybe," Carlos says, where 'maybe' means 'yes,' but he's not admitting to anything that lands him on Perez.

"If you were my client, I'd be yelling at you right now," Katie tells him, sitting down on the lounge chair in the room and kicking her feet up on to the bed to poke at his. "God, if I were my client, I'd be yelling at myself to never see you again."

"You're not going to do that, right?" he says, sitting up suddenly. 

"You can't just go telling people that we're friends." Carlos tries to respond but Katie keeps talking, right over Carlos, ignoring that he said anything to finish her rant. "That's a surefire way to end up on all the gossip sites and I haven't even told anyone yet," and then switching midstream to answer, "Not going to do what?"

"Tell yourself not to see me anymore."

Katie sighs. "No, I'm not going to do that."

"Good," Carlos says, hands crawling up Katie's legs to pull her back to bed. He loves how she's small enough that he can manhandle her like that (and he loves that she lets him manhandle her like that, because he's under no illusions about how she could destroy him). "And we've told people," Carlos says, depositing them back on the bed, on their sides curved in towards one another. "My friends know. And I hope this doesn't come as a surprise to you, but everyone at your birthday party knows, too." 

"You know who I mean by 'anyone'," Katie says. They're too close together for Katie not to look at him when they're talking, face to face at the head of the bed, but she tries her hardest not to meet his eyes. And then he knows exactly who 'anyone' is. Kendall.

"Well, maybe he'll read it on the blogs and you won't have to say anything," Carlos says. He's still not sure what he did wrong last night or why people are interested in who he's dating.

"Oh god, I hope not," Katie says. "That would be so, so, so, so much worse." Katie gets a little more wound up with each 'so.' "Maybe I should just get up and call him now; he cannot read about this online." Katie starts to roll away, probably to do just that, but Carlos stops her with an arm on her waist.

"Let's forget it for now," Carlos suggests instead. "It's a beautiful morning, we've got this beautiful bed. . ." Carlos trails off, waving his arm to the window for the morning, and the bed like he's showing off prizes on The Price is Right.

"You're ridiculous," Katie says, but she stops trying to get up, giggling at him instead, and tugging his arm back around her.

"But it works," he says tightening his hold on her. Carlos kisses her, and Katie kisses back, and they spend there morning picking up where last night's festivities ended.

\---

Carlos isn't expecting Katie when his doorbell rings one Saturday morning a few weeks later. Katie has some networking thing the night before, and was starting to panic about her upcoming exams.

"Hey," he says, opening the door. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Oh," Katie says. "I can, um, go, if you want."

"No, it's okay, come in."

"No, really, I don't have to be here. My group for this final project is awful and I hate everyone and I just needed to get away and I don't understand why we have to do group work anyway, but I can go hate everyone from somewhere else if you're busy."

"I wouldn't want to inspire you to hate me too, you can stay. I just-"

The doorbell rings.

"What?" Katie asks, wanting to know the rest of what he's saying.

But Carlos goes to answer the door.

"Carlos, hi," Izzy says bounding in the door, throwing her arms around him in a hug. 

"Hey, Izzy," Carlos says.

"Hey, Carlos, thanks so much," Camille says from where she's standing on the doorstep. "I'll be back around 8 for her."

"Sure, no problem, you know my number if anything changes."

"Hi, who are you?" Izzy asks behind him in the house.

"Hi, I'm Katie," Katie says, introducing herself to Izzy.

"You're Carlos's girlfriend! I've heard so much about you."

Katie gives Carlos a questioning look.

"Really now?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh my god, Izzy, you don't tell people that."

"Why not? It's not like you said anything bad." Then, to Katie, "He didn't say anything bad. He says that you're nice and pretty and that he kissed you."

"So, what are we going to do today?" Carlos interrupts, trying to change the conversation.

"Can we go to the park?"

"Sure."

"Carlos always gets me ice cream when we go to the park. I bet he'll get some for you too. That's what boyfriends are supposed to do."

"Well, I'm sure he wil,l then. So, tell me more about your recital."

"I'm in ballet, and we're doing three numbers and I have a solo in the third one and I wear green. Do you dance?"

"No. But I once beat Castle Crashers on super-mega-expert level in 19 minutes."

"Really?" Izzy asks, wide-eyed with wonder. 

"Yeah."

"But that's impossible," she says, expression narrowing skeptically.

"Do you want me to teach you?" Katie offers.

"Oh my god yes."

"A detour to the media room then?"

"And then we'll go to the park?" Izzy says.

"Of course," Katie says. "Carlos owes us ice cream."

\---

Carlos is exhausted. Luckily, he's not the only own. There's pizza box detritus littering his coffee table, and Ninja Princesses on TV. Katie and Izzy outvoted him, which is fine because he's about point two seconds from falling asleep anyway.

The doorbell rings and both girls turn to look at him expectantly. They're not getting up to get the door while Princess Tsunami is rescuing Prince Nimbus from the giant squid. So Carlos drags himself up. He picks up his phone as he gets up and looks at the clock. It's 8 already. That must be Camille.

When he opens the door, he's proved right. "Hey."

"You look exhausted," Camille says.

"You look rested," Carlos responds.

"I hope Izzy wasn't too much trouble."

"No, of course not. It's just that she and Katie are one person short of being an unholy trinity."

"You know that Izzy was too young to remember Sarah," Camille says.

Carlos quirks an eyebrow. He's not sure how that's relevant.

"Izzy hasn't met anyone else you've dated. It's a big deal."

"I guess," Carlos shrugs. He hadn't particularly thought about it. "Don't worry, they got on thick as thieves."

"If you're sure," Camille says.

Carlos isn't sure what she's warning about, but it's usually just easier to agree. "I'm sure."

\---

Carlos likes Gulianna Rancic well enough. They met a few years back at the Daytime Emmy's of all things, and he's been interviewed by her for E! a few times since then. And Ryan Seacrest has always been perfectly nice. But Carlos may need to re-consider his opinions. 

He's making dinner for himself and Katie, Katie seated on the couch in the den, on the other side of the half-wall, now banned from his kitchen for the safety (and cleanliness) of all involved. She's doing something presumably school related with textbooks and her laptop while E! News plays in the background, providing background noise for both of them. He's pouring the tortellini into the colander (and seriously, how does Katie screw this up? all you do is put the frozen pasta in boiling water), when he hears his name, turns, and promptly dumps half their dinner (and the hot water) over the hand holding the colander.

"Ow, fuck," he says, letting the pot clatter into the sink.

"It's not so easy now, is it?" Katie says, craning around to look at him, then, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he says, wiping his hand with a dishtowel, turning to look into the den at her, leaving dinner abandoned behind him. He leans over, holding his hand over the dividing wall, so she can see that he's fine. "Can you rewind that? I heard my name."

"You're not going to be happy with it," she says, clearly having caught it the first time around, not busy dropping a pot of pasta on herself. But she picks up the remote and jumps back anyway.

"SO TRUE, SO FALSE" flashes across the screen, starting the segment. "Yesterday cameras caught Carlos Garcia out and about at the playground with an adorable little girl," the voiceover says while grainy footage of them out with Izzy play onscreen. "Does Carlos have a secret child with the mystery women he's with?"

"Well, that rumor is SO FALSE," the voice over says, accompanying all caps stamp on-screen to go with the voice.

"The little girl is his goddaughter, Isabelle, daughter of Otto co-star Camille Roberts and former co-Big Time Rush member James Diamond. And as for the mystery woman, that's Katie Knight, younger sister of another former Big Time Rush member, Kendall Knight. They were first seen out together at the premiere of Camille's newest movie, Plus One." They're showing dizzyingly, quick cuts of red carpet footage from the premier now, and blurry paparazzi shots of them getting in the car after the after-party, as though that will somehow convince people that they walked the carpet together, or have ever talked to the media about their relationship, and that this isn't a gross invasion of privacy. But no, they want nothing to do with that, continuing the voice over. If Carlos thought it couldn't get any worse, he was wrong. "And they've been spotted around town together several times since. Now that's keeping it all in the family. And as for this happy couple starting their own happy family, no news on that front, but only time will tell." There's a nice dramatic pause before, "The scandal continues in ghosts of boybands past, with JC Chasez, in SO TRUE, SO FALSE," the graphics having come full circle. Katie pauses the show there, the words a terrible taunt.

"Well, suddenly I feel less like dinner and more like punching someone," he says, dropping down next to Katie on the couch.

"Hey," Katie says, leaning into him, resting a comforting hand on his thigh, her head on his shoulder, "it's okay."

"No, it's not," he says. "They shouldn't make things up about you. Or me."

"No, it's not," Katie agrees, face solemn. Then, cracking a smile, "Besides, yesterday they were just calling you a cradle robber for dating the kid sister you knew growing up and now we're settling down to start a family. If they're gonna make up spurious lies about me, the least they could do is have some narrative consistency to them."

Carlos twists to look at Katie, so close from where she's resting on his shoulder that he can only focus on her eyes, looking bright and hopefully up at him. She's right, there's nothing he can do. He breathes out and consciously lets go of some of the tension in his shoulders. "You're right. They have no narrative consistency," Carlos says.

"I know, seriously." She leans up to give him a quick peck before hopping off the couch. "Why don't you sit here while I finish dinner?" she says.

"I can do it," Carlos says.

"No, really, you should sit with your hand," she says. Carlos's hand is resting palm-up on his lap, red and possibly slightly burned, but not so bad that he couldn't plate the practically done food. On the other hand, "It's practically done," Katie says. "Really, how much damage can I do?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

Katie gives Carlos a look.

"Fine, fine, use the blue bowls, and there's pesto in the fridge."

"I've got it," Katie says. 

Carlos figures what the hell and stays where he is. He picks up the remote and changes the channel. There must be a hockey game on somewhere. That's the point of having so many channels. He's just relaxed on the couch, and there's a crash from the kitchen. He sits up, ready to help. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Don't worry," Katie calls. "It's okay."

\---

It's not okay. It also might be time to reconsider not living in a gated community. Because when Carlos gets home, Kendall is sitting on his front step.

The last time Carlos saw Kendall, Kendall and Logan had been screaming at each other. Logan wanted out of Big Time Rush to go to college and Kendall was having none of it. It wasn't the first time they'd had the fight, and Carlos didn't particularly think it would be the last. Every blowup between them was worse than the last, but he figured that that was just how it was going to be. He and James had a routine, knowing to disappear when it got like that, except that time Kendall and Logan blew up during a hockey game and Carlos just didn't want to get up. Those stupid four walls were his home too and he should've been able to watch a hockey game in peace. So that time he stayed where he was, letting Logan and Kendall scream at each other around him. 

It was a bad move because Kendall and Logan couldn't let him be. Kendall was the one who first tried to bring him into it, asking, "You don't want him to leave, do you?"

"I don't want to be part of this."

"See, Carlos thinks you're being ridiculous."

Carlos's, "I never said that," was drowned out by Kendall.

"You're the one being ridiculous."

"Wanting to be a doctor, which I've wanted to do _forever_ is not ridiculous," Logan said. "You not letting me out of this stupid band I didn't want to be in to begin with is ridiculous."

"You totally wanted to be in the band. You auditioned."

"Because James wanted to be famous."

"So what, you're just going to leave us?"

"Yes."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Anything you want," Logan said. "You can do anything, you don't actually have to be a dick, despite the fact that seems to be what you want to be every time we're in the same room."

"What would you do?" Kendall asked Carlos.

"Be able to watch a fucking hockey game in peace," Carlos said.

"So you don't care if Logan leaves?"

"I'd rather he be happy than miserable, so if he hates it that much; yes."

"Fine, be on his side."

James walked in then, and Carlos shook his head violently at him, a warning to get out and save himself while he still could. But it was too late, Kendall and Logan shouting questions at him about what he was going to do now, and was he really going to let Logan leave, and so on and so forth. 

"You're making us all miserable."

"Fine!" Kendall shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. "You're free, Logan. I hope you're all happy that you broke up the band." Then he stormed out.

And now he's sitting on Carlos's front stoop. Kendall stands when he sees Carlos, and they stare at each other, Carlos frozen in spot by Kendall's unexpected appearance.

"You can't be dating Katie," Kendall says. Kendall has always been taller than Carlos, and standing a few steps exaggerates the difference.

"Um, hi."

Kendall looks older than Carlos remembers him; real person older, broader shoulders without having Hollywood gym body, and thicker skin with stubble, not artfully, but like he heard the news and left immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not shave, to intimidate Carlos into, what, breaking up with Katie? "You should maybe talk to Katie about that," Carlos adds.

Kendall scowls and takes the steps down so he's on the same level as Carlos. "I did."

"And I'm guessing she said 'no'," Carlos says. If Katie were going to break up with Carlos, Kendall wouldn't need to bother with him.

Kendall doesn't answer. Instead, he changes tactic. "Really? You and Katie?"

"Yes, really."

Kendall looks lost now, like he's used up all his options. Carlos is glad that Kendall doesn't seem to have even considered beating him up an option. On the other hand, it's sad, the way Kendall is looking around at Carlos's front yard, his driveway, the street behind Carlos, lost. He came all the way out here and now he has nowhere to go. They used to be best friends and now that Kendall's done threatening him, he can't even look at Carlos.

"Do you want to come in?" Carlos asks. He wouldn't turn away a stranger that looks that lost, let alone Kendall.

"I-" Kendall looks at Carlos with all questions. "Okay."

Kendall steps aside to let Carlos pass as he walks up to the walkway. Kendall follows Carlos up the steps, their hight evening out with Carlos one step above Kendall, pausing for Carlos to unlock the door, and following him inside.

\---

"So," Carlos says. This should be less awkward. He's in his house, in his living room, where he is approximately every day. It's awkward anyway.

"So," Kendall says. At least they're both experiencing it.

"Can I get you-" Carlos starts, falling back on pleasantries.

At the same time, Kendall says, "You're really dating-"

They both leave their sentences dangling.

"Yes."

"Sure," They both answer the other at the same time.

"It has nothing to do with you," Carlos says. "Katie is amazing. She's funny and smart and we have fun together. So if you have a problem, it's your problem, not mine."

"I think I'll have that drink now," Kendall says.

"In that case, I'll be right back. You still drink (some drink)?"

"If you've got it."

"Be right back."

Carlos leaves Kendall in his living room and goes to the bar. He makes the drink and tries to think about what's happening over the overloaded static in his head. Carlos can't figure it out. It's weird, sure. In some ways, Kendall is a stranger superimposed on a mostly familiar face. But in others, he's exactly the same. The way he sits, that face he gets when he's thinking unpleasant things. The way he looked around Carlos's house and gave a nod of satisfaction, the same way he did when they first surveyed the Palmwoods or babysat Gustavo's mansion or bought their own places, like this is the life they're meant to live. Except Kendall isn't here living it with them. Carlos has no idea what he's doing, if he's happy, if he'd ever even want to be part of their lives again or if he's just sitting there stewing in how much he still doesn't forgive them for the end of the band.

And that's where this should start, not defending his relationship with Katie, but seeing if he can ever have one with Kendall again. He's not giving up Katie either way. But Kendall wants that, Carlos can certainly get rid of him. It's what Kendall did to them ages ago.

Carlos takes the drink for Kendall, grabs a beer from the fridge for himself, and heads back to the living room.

Carlos hands over Kendall's drink, takes a drink of his own, and asks, "How are you? What have you been up to?"

Kendall's silent for a moment and again Carlos recognizes it, the way he takes a drink to give himself time to think before he answers.

"Good," Kendall says.

\---

Here's what Carlos learns about Kendall that first day: Kendall is married. He went to college. Katie manages all of his investments. He works in HR at a hotel in Minneapolis. He hated them for a long time. He has a three year old son. He doesn't hate them anymore. He didn't buy a return ticket when he flew out here. He's going to stay with his mom and step-dad and figure out how to get home in the morning. Maybe Carlos and Katie would like to get together before he leaves? Kendall knows that his mom would love to see Carlos again.

\---

Kendall stays for the weekend. Sunday morning, Carlos shifts nervously on the doorstep of a well manicured split-level house in Brentwood. He's not meeting the parents in the traditional sense. He's known Mrs. Knight (or is it Mrs. Harris now, she re-married since Carlos knew her?) for practically his whole life. But he hasn't seen her for as long as it's been since he's seen Kendall. And now he's dating Katie.

Standing here isn't doing anything to alleviate his nerves. He takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.

Mrs. Knight opens the door. There's a pause where he just looks at her. Then he's enveloped in a hug.

"Look at you," she says, pushing him back to hold him at arm's length. "You're all grown up." 

"I-" Mrs. Knight was the least sentimental mom Carlos knows. Even from halfway across the county, his mom called him crying, just so proud, at all the major milestones: first single, first sold out tour, first number one album. But Mrs. Knight wasn't like that. She was the mom to roll her eyes at their shenanigans and to sigh dramatically while she helped them clean up their messes. So it startles Carlos to hear the choked-back tears in her voice. "I missed you too," he says pulling her back into the hug.

When they finally split, Carlos surreptitiously wipes the tears that are forming in his eyes. "So, let's just pretend that never happened, and we were totally cool about that," Carlos says.

"Cool about what?" Katie asks, coming up behind her mom.

"Nothing," they say in unison.

"Whatever," Katie says, rolling her eyes. She walks around her mom to greet Carlos, rising up to her tip-toes to kiss Carlos hello. Carlos side eyes Mrs. Knight (while he apologizes in his head to her new husband, she'll never be anything but Mrs. Knight to him), but she doesn't seem bothered by proof that Carlos and Katie are dating.

"Come on," Katie says, leading Carlos into the house. "Come meet Frank."

Frank is Katie and Kendall's step-father, a real-estate agent with white hair and a Hollywood tan. He's in the den watching golf and he stands to meet Carlos when they enter the room. He has a firm handshake. Kendall stands too, with an offer to get him a drink.

The evening goes well. 

Frank grills, and they eat on the back patio under a giant sun-shade. Before the meal is over, Kendall is showing off photos of his son, Paul, and not to be outdone Carlos pulls up photos of Izzy to brag about. And it's barely awkward how discussion of Izzy leads to talking about James and Camille and all the people they used to know. Katie is surprisingly up-to-date on the Jennifers and Guitar Dude and Elliot considering none of them have the type of careers where you'd know what they're up to ("Exactly, they might need a new agent."). Kendall still keeps in touch with Jo, and Jenny Tinkler, of all people.

Kendall's trying to teach Paul how to skate and Carlos talks about the team he's coaching, which leads easily to a discussion of the Minnesota Wild's season. Frank doesn't know much about hockey but he's an avid Chargers fan, and as Vikings fans Carlos and Kendall razz him about that.

The evening winds down and Carlos says his goodbyes. He leaves Frank with a handshake and Mrs. Knight with a hug. Katie says her goodbyes in reverse order; she's leaving with him and he's glad that she made that decision and announcement because he doesn't think he ever could have. But that leaves him standing in front of Kendall, not sure what to do. He wants them to be okay so much. He wants them to be better than okay. He wants them to be friends again. He never wanted them to stop, and things have been good. But the ball's always been in Kendall's court for that. In the short term, Carlos just wants to know if he'll see Kendall again or if this is goodbye for another ten years and if it is how does he want to leave it this time?

Kendall takes it out of his hands, going in for the hug. "It's great to see you again, man."

"You should come back to visit for real," Carlos says. "Bring Marie. I'm sure James and Logan would love to see you."

"I-" Kendall says. "I don't know. Maybe." Maybe sounds like no.

"Please. I don't want it to be another decade."

"Treat Katie right and it won't be," Kendall says. "And if you hurt her, I'll kill you."

"Come on, Carlos," Katie shouts, from the foyer.

"I won't," Carlos tells Kendall, low and serious, before raising his voice to shout back, "On my way."

\---

"So, I'm throwing James a birthday party," Camille says when they're on a break from doing some voice overs for DVD extras at the studio.

"Isn't his birthday right before you're due?" Carlos asks. He was in Vancouver filming a TV guest role, and it seems like Camille is twice the size she was when he last saw her.

"Yes. And?" Camille says.

"If you aren't up to it, I'm sure he'd be okay without a party."

"You've met James before, right? There's nothing he loves more than being the center of attention. Plus, this way he'll owe me one."

"If you're sure," Carlos says skeptically. And then he gets a new idea in his head. "Can you do a favor for me?" Carlos asks back.

"What is it?" Camille asks. She knows better than to agree without knowing what she's agreeing too.

"Call up Kendall, invite him and Marie. I'll give you his number."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Camille asks.

Carlos and Kendall have been talking on a regular basis and Kendall refuses to come visit. Katie and Carlos continue to be stalked by the paparazzi all around town and Kendall calls to tell them which tabloid they've made the cover of this week but he continues to refuses to come visit. Carlos gets VIP tickets for when the Wildcats are in town, and Kendall refuses to come visit. It's getting old.

"Yes," Carlos says. 

"I'll see what I can do," Camille says.

\---

The party Camille throws James has a paparazzi-filled red carpet out front, just the way James likes it. Carlos and Katie get there early and walk the carpet together. If there are gonna be photos of them out getting coffee, bedraggled and hiding behind giant sunglasses, there's no point in pretending at things like this where they're prepared and stylist approved for photos. They make quick work of it, posing alone and together, giving sound bites of how happy they are to be celebrating James' birthday and who they're wearing.

Logan gets there about the same time, but comes in the back, bypassing the red carpet all together, scowling about the press more by habit than anything else, and they get to drinking.

James and Camille are fashionably late, finding Carlos and Logan well on their way to getting drunk at a table near the bar. Katie's off working the room, because that's like her secret super-power skill, making small talk with famous people. There's a waitress at their table immediately, and while James gives her his order, Camille rolls her eyes at him and tells Carlos and Logan that they weren't actually late to their own party, James just took forever hamming it up for the press outside. Nothing new there.

Carlos doesn't start worrying that Camille couldn't pull through until there's talk of bringing out the cake and Kendall still isn't there yet. He checks his watch and he must look worried because Katie, who's made her way back to them, leans. "Don't worry, he'll be here. Marie was working a late shift so they're on a late flight," she says in his ear, not a whisper because it's too loud in the club for that. Carlos gives Katie a wry grin and drops it. There are more important things happening, like shots.

Carlos doesn't know if it's that he stops watching his watch or if it's the shots, but the next thing he knows, Katie is right (actually, that happens all the time), and Kendall is there, standing at the end of their table. "Hi," Kendall says. Next to him, clutching his hand is a tall woman in a purple, ruffled dress; this must be Marie.

A hush descends on the table, unnaturally quiet considering the music that the DJ's pumping and the sounds of party surrounding them. 

Katie gets up first, to give him a hug and a sisterly rib, an, "About time you finally got here."

"Ugh, I hate airports," Kendall answers half-heartedly, focused on the rest of the table, which is still frozen in surprise.

Carlos gets up, unexpectedly unsteady on his feet, because when you're sitting with the birthday boy, the rest of the party circles around to you, and you don't have to get up and mingle at all, so maybe he's more drunk than he realized. 

"Hey man, it's good to see you again," Carlos says, giving Kendall a hug. "And you must be Marie." He offers his hand for a handshake.

"Hi," Marie says. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Finally?" Carlos says.

"I've heard a lot about you."

"None of it's true," Carlos says quickly, joking, not sure what she could have heard from Kendall.

"Don't worry, Katie has only nice things to say about you."

"And that's why she's my favorite," Carlos says, he slings an arm around her, pulling Katie to his side.

"As she should be," Marie says.

Somewhere in there, James and Logan got over their shock and got up too and it's a mess of people standing at the end of their booth, Camille hugging Kendall hello from the distance enforced from her pregnant stomach. She’s one of only three people this isn’t a surprise for. She had called, and called, and called until he finally capitulated and agreed to come to the party. James is next, with a backslapping hug that Kendall is so shocked he's receiving he can only follow along. Then it's Logan, and they stand there looking at one another for a drawn out pause, before Logan offers Kendall his hand and they shake. When they speak it's at the same time, one on top of the other, "I'm sorry," before the chatter starts up again with James, still shocked, asking "What are you doing here?" The question is all marvel and no malice, and Marie explains to Camille that they met Mrs. Knight at the airport, and Paul is spending the night at his grandparent's, and Katie teases Carlos, "I better be your favorite."

Someone makes their way over, and that's not unusual, people have been swinging by all night to wish James a happy birthday. It is unusual that the person is Dak Zevon, and it's not James he's saying hello to, but Kendall, all manly fist bumps and back-slapping hug.

"What are you doing here?" James asks. He's never forgiven Dak from stealing the role of Taft from him, although stealing is probably the wrong way to put it. Dak already had two Oscar nominations (but no wins) by that point. James is still a musician who's done some sit-com cameos and that one rom-com. 

"Happy birthday, man," Dak says. Their feud is totally one-sided.

"You don't talk to us for a decade, but you're friends with Dak?" Carlos is incredulous.

"We filmed The Ice Frontier on site on Lake Harriet," Dak says.

"Plus, he never left my boyband and crushed my life."

"Umm." They're all not sure what to say about that.

"Sorry," Kendall says. "I guess it's still too soon to joke about that, huh?"

"Yes," they answer in a resounding chorus.

"Forever, yes," Carlos says.

And then they talk some more about some stuff until they're really closing the night out at the bar. The people who were there for the cameras are gone, the assortment of co-workers and collaborators who have to be there and the next-big-things who are trying to get their names in the press, leaving those who are there to party, drunk and dancing on tables, and those that are James' real friends still there to hang out with him. Carlos, James, and Kendall are there, hanging out in a booth. The women in their lives in another. Logan's still there somewhere, but no one's quite sure where. There's supposed to be an after party, but James is suggesting they leave that for the partiers, and ditch it to go hang out at his house. He's got a pool and all the drinks they could want. 

Katie finds them (not that it's hard) right before Carlos goes to look for them.

"We have to go," she says in a rush.

"Um, okay, Carlos says, getting up. "I was just about to come find you anyway."

"No. Camille-" she says.

"What?"

"She's having the baby," she tells the table.

"Whoa."

"Where is she?" James asks, standing suddenly. "Who's with her?"

"In the bathroom, with Marie," Katie says. At that, James staggers off in the direction of the bathrooms. "Kendall, go make sure he's okay," Katie tells Kendall. "Carlos, can you call the cars?"

"Sure," he says, bewildered but doing what she says, as she goes to do whatever else needs to be done.

It's not difficult to get the cars; they were hired for the night anyway so it's just a change of destination and they'll be there in a few minutes, they'll call when they're out front. So Carlos goes to find everyone else, see if there's anything else he can do.

Carlos finds Katie and Kendall in the hallway outside the bathrooms. "Cars are on their way," he tells them.

"Great," Katie says.

Carlos's phone buzzes in his pocket and when he looks at the screen, "And there they are."

"Great," Katie says. "Can you help get them out there? There's a back entrance that way," she says and points further down the hallway, "We'll grab Logan and everyone's stuff from coat check and follow in the second car."

"Sure," Carlos says. He knocks gingerly on the door, before opening it a peak, sticking his head in to say, "The car's are here."

"Great," Marie says, getting to her feet and putting an arm around Camille to help her up. James scrambles up and puts his arm around the other side of Camille.

"You guys okay?" he asks. Two-thirds of them look unsteady on their feet.

"James," Marie says, "can you go out ahead with Carlos and hold the doors open?"

"Sure," he says, stumbling out in front of them.

"You are brilliant," Carlos tells Marie.

"Thanks," she says rolling her eyes.

"Can we get a move on it?" Camille asks, face scrunched up in discomfort.

"Moving, right now," Marie says, as they walk out the door Carlos has opened.

"Right that way," Carlos says, pointing down the hallway where James has the other door opened.

Carlos keeps an eye out behind them, while Camille and Marie make their way down the hall. Out in the main bar, the party is still moving in full swing, no one paying any attention to what's going on out back. Once Camille and Marie pass James and are outside, Carlos follows them out. James and Marie are getting Camille in the back seat. Carlos is pretty sure the most help he can be is in staying out of the way, so he slides in up front next to the driver. He has a text from Katie, asking how they're doing. He answers that everything's okay. She texts back that they're on their way behind them. And well, the most help Carlos can really be in this situation is pulling up directions and traffic reports on his phone, being a back-seat driver from the passenger side seat, and texting Katie to keep the other car apprised of their progress. So, that's what he does.

The hospital is even more crazy than the nightclub. Camille is whisked away as soon as they get there. Carlos continues his efforts to distract James when he's in the way and stay out of the way himself when he's not needed for that. Marie seems to know her way around, and when Carlos questions it, she says that all hospitals are pretty much the same; it's just like work and if James can sober up a little he'll be allowed to go in. Carlos texts Katie the plan, so it's not a surprise that she finds them in the gift shop/snack shop buying Tylenol, a cup of shitty coffee and a bottle of water.

"Hey," Katie says, giving Carlos a quick kiss hello, slipping her arm around him. "You okay?" she asks James.

"I will be as soon as they let me in," he says in between gulping down the coffee and moving on to the water.

"Slow down, take some deep breaths," she says. "I passed a bathroom out front if you want to go splash some water on your face. You'll be fine."

"Thanks," he says, finishing the water and tossing the bottle in the trash. "I'll be right back," he says, taking off for the bathroom.

"Well," Katie says to Carlos, "Camille sure knows how to throw a party."

\---

To say it's the next morning when Kendall comes to find them with the news that Camille had the baby isn't exactly accurate. For one, it was already veering into morning when they arrived and it's certainly afternoon now. But despite the coffee, Carlos had no problem falling asleep when he scooted down in his chair, rested his head on Katie's shoulder, and closed his eyes. So it feels like morning, freshly awake, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he gets up from the chair he'd been sitting in. Freed from under a sleeping Carlos, Katie gets up too, rubbing her shoulder, grumbling that, "Your head is heavy."

"Sorry," Carlos says, massaging her shoulder for her.

"No problem," Katie says, slotting in under his arm.

They walk back up to the maternity ward and Kendall fills them in on all the details. 

When they get to the waiting room, their crowd has grown. Mrs. Knight and Frank are there. Shannon and Shayna, who were playing babysitters for the night, are there with Izzy. Marie is there, of course, and Logan. Sitting next to Logan is Dak. Which, wait, what? Carlos verbalizes that exact thought, saying, "Wait, what's Dak doing here?"

Dak opens his mouth to answer. "We were talking at the party," Logan says, cutting off whatever Dak was about to say. "There's a lot of waiting in babies being born, so he came with me." While Logan talks Carlos watches as Dak slips his hand over the armrest between the two chairs and curls his hand around Logan's forearm. It's a lot more telling than Logan's babble. 

Carlos looks over to Kendall for confirmation that he's seeing what he thinks he's seeing and Kendall's smirking. Carlos looks back and forth between Dak's hand on Logan and Kendall's smirk.

"You did this," he hisses at Kendall.

Kendall's smirk just grows.

"That's not fair. You've only been back a day. You can't be a better friend than us," Carlos says.

"Hey," James says, emerging from the hallway to the right, cutting off all other conversations their group is having. "So, who wants to come see the baby? They've got him in that room behind the glass wall."

The whole group crowds around James, family by blood and history and circumstance, new and old, all excited to meet the newest member.


End file.
